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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

T&E FAQs

So I already had a post idea in the works for today, but then I thought maybe it would be fun to take a minute and answer some of the questions we get asked the most frequently about the girls. Here goes:

* Do twins run in your family?
The scientific answer is that Tamsie and Evie are identical twins, and identical twins aren't determined genetically. Fraternal twins are. See this page for more info on this sort of thing. That said, I've heard that there is some debate surrounding this. At the time when I found out I was having twins, I knew of no twins on my side of the family. However, when I announced the news to my Grandma (Mom's mom), she informed me that she wasn't surprised in the least that I would have twins, because every one of her first cousins had twins and she'd heard it skips a generation. Furthermore, her grandfather had a set of identical twin sisters, and her father had a set of fraternal twin siblings. In fact, she had thought she would have twins at some point, but she never did. Also, Chris's maternal grandmother was a twin - although twins generally aren't determined by the dad anyway, from my understanding.

* How do you tell them apart?
Right now, it's pretty easy, since Evangelyn is about a pound smaller than Tamsie. However, this is only due to the onset of Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome, which they experienced right before they were delivered. It basically caused Tamsie to steal a bunch of nutrients and a good bit of the blood supply from Evie, which made Tamsie have way too much of everything in her body and left Evie with not nearly enough. Consequently, there is a size discrepancy between the two. However, this is probably not permanent, especially since we were able to catch their TTTS so quickly. (More on this in another post!) In addition to their sizes, we have other ways of telling them apart. Evie's left ear is all wrinkly (and probably always will be), due to her position in the womb. (Apparently Tamsie was hogging the space!) Also, even though their eyes look very similar, we can tell definite differences. Evie is much more likely to open hers up all the way, while Tamsie is not. (Chris has said that I tend to open mine up like Evie does, and Tamsie takes more after him!) As their personalities develop, it also gets easier and easier to tell them apart.

* How do you know they're identical?
They were in the same placenta. All twins in the same placenta are identical, but not all identical twins are in the same placenta... does that makes sense? (It makes me laugh to think about how many times the word "placenta" has come up in my vocabulary since learning I was going to have twins!)

* Who do you think they look the most like?
We are in the process of hunting down Chris's baby pictures, but here is my newborn picture, for comparison:

You tell me! See any resemblance? I think you can also see it in my profile in this picture:

Of course, Chris and I were MUCH bigger babies when we were born!

* What are their personalities like so far? Are they just alike or can you already tell differences?
They are very different. Tamsie is much more laid-back at this point (most of the time). Evie is more expressive, though - she loves to flail her arms around and make all kinds of funny faces. We always say she's bound to be an actress or an artist of some kind! Tamsie was the first to smile (at an appropriate time), but Evie was the first to talk (of course we're talking baby talk here, but that totally counts! :). They prefer different kinds of pacifiers. Evie loves to be with Tamsie more than Tamsie likes to be with Evie, at least for now, but neither likes to be ignored by the other. Also, Tamsie is typically the better sleeper, but Evie is typically the better eater (despite her size!).

* What did they weigh when they were born?
Tamsie weighed 2 lbs 14 oz, and Evie weighed 1 lb 15 oz.

* Who was born first?
Tamsie. She was born at 4:09 am, and Evie was born 4:10 am.

Evangelyn = Chris's Greek great-aunt's name is Evangeline.
Rose = We like this classic name and thought it went well with Evangelyn. I also have an aunt whose middle name is Rose.

* What is the hardest part of keeping them all by yourself during the day?
Definitely keeping them on a decent schedule and feeding them both. When I feed one, the other gets mad. Then when the first one has finished eating, she gets mad when I feed the second one. So basically there is much crying in our house for an hour or so during feeding time! If you call during a feeding time, this is why I never can answer. It's hard when they both need me at the same time, but there is only one of me to go around! It's times like these that make me really miss having family around much closer, to help out on a regular basis. But I digress!

(feeding is much easier when Chris is home too! :) Thanks Melissa for this photo!)

If you think of any other T&E questions you'd like to ask, just leave your question in the comments section and I'll address it! :)

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About Me

Welcome to my blog! I'm a mom of twins who arrived much earlier than we had expected (29w4d) due to TTTS, but they are thriving now! I'm a Memphis girl who loves studying theology, playing piano, drinking a ridiculous amount of coffee, drawing and painting (although that doesn't happen much right now), shopping, and having fun with my family and friends! I mainly blog about life with my two sweet girls, but you honestly never know what's going to appear on here! :)